Sorry about the delay. Had a lot of work to deal with last week. Not to mention, I also took a little side trip to Tallinn where a stupidly-named military train blasted me to kingdom come. Fun times. Anyways, let's get back on with the show.
Ch 12: Tying Loose Threads
There were probably a lot of things Rom should've felt upon seeing the psychotic Nepgear being annihilated by Ram. Joy, relief, maybe even a bit of awe. Instead, all she felt was a growing headache tinged with anxiety.
That Nepgear clearly had the strength of a secret-boss. And yet Ram just outright deleted her with that attack. A shiver ran down her spine as the massive ray of holy light finally faded from the sky. Oh goddesses, we're all fucked.
Okay, so maybe she was overreacting a bit. But who could blame her? Ram was a walking disaster no matter the dimension or time period. In fact, the only reason her version of Ram had not burned down all of Gamindustri yet was due to the massive number of flame-suppressant runes and other such contingencies that Rom had scattered throughout the globe. However, considering the level of power this current Ram had just showcased, Rom had a feeling that no amount of precautions could save the world once another category-Ram incident inevitably occurred.
Luckily, her mounting panic attack was momentarily waylaid by God Eater speaking up. Or rather, shouting.
"SO DID WE WIN?"
Everyone instinctively put their hands over their ears as they turned to glare at the suddenly sheepish-looking girl.
"WHY ARE YOU-"
The reformed thug quickly shut his mouth when he realized just how loud his own voice was coming out.
Before anyone could figure out what was going on, there was a pink flash of light as Ram suddenly appeared in front of them.
"GIVE ME A SEC," the pink twin shouted. "I'LL FIX THIS."
Ignoring the wince everyone gave at her overly-loud declaration, Ram summoned a large menu screen filled with numerous adjustment bars and check boxes. She quickly fiddled around with one of these bars before speaking up again.
"Alright how's this?" she asked, her voice coming out in its normally loud and annoying volume.
Everyone just looked at her quizzically while Rom decided to ask the question on all their minds.
"What the flying fuck was all that about?" (Okay, so maybe that wasn't how the rest of them might've phrased it but the general idea was the same.)
Ram just smirked as she turned her attention back to her menu screen.
"Flan apparently messed around with the world's character voice setting."
"Who the hell is Flan?" Uni asked with a wary glare. "And what do you mean character voice setting?"
Ram gave a taunting smirk. "Come on, I'm sure a sharp kid like you can figure that out for herself."
Uni did not get a chance to angrily retort before Ram continued on.
"Alright, looks like she hasn't adjusted anything else." She casually closed the menu screen with a wave of her bandaged hand before turning back to the group. "Now that that's taken care of, I should-"
A sudden flash of violet light cut her off as Rom and Uni immediately tensed. Contrary to their fears, however, the psychotic Nepgear did not reappear as instead a disheveled body was dumped unceremoniously within their midst.
"Um... someone you know?" Ram asked, looking just as lost as everyone else for a change.
Surprisingly, God Eater and the reformed thug seemed to recognize the newcomer first as they quickly moved forward. Moving in practiced tandem, the young Maker pulled out a pair of handcuffs from her inventory while her associate roughly grabbed the person's arms and raised him up. Thanks to this, Rom finally managed to see that the unconscious human was actually the ASIC extremist leader that Brave had been trying to apprehend way back before all this craziness had occurred.
Seeing Ram give her a puppy-eyed questioning look, Rom let out a sigh before giving her sister a quick summary.
"He's the leader of an extremist faction of the ASIC that apparently split apart after Brave joined up with Uni." She glanced over at the aforementioned pair with a slight glare. "Something I still want an answer for by the way."
Uni simply let out a derisive huff at that while Brave continued to remain as impassive as a statue. Giving a frustrated growl at the uncooperative duo, Rom simply continued on with her explanation for Ram.
"Anyways, Uni and her team managed to capture this sad excuse for a human before Nepgear manipulated us into fighting. I tried to keep him from escaping by freezing his legs in a block of ice but he apparently managed to break free during all the chaos."
Ram crossed her arms as she put on a thoughtful expression.
"Huh. So the ASIC has been split into two opposing factions. Now that's a plot development I haven't seen in a while." She ignored the confused looks the rest of the group gave her as she continued on. "Regardless, you two must've entertained Flan pretty well with your fight if she's bothering to tie up a loose plot thread for you like this."
Rom blinked in surprise while Uni gave a thoughtful frown.
"Wait, is Flan your way of referring to that crazy Nepgear?" the Lastation CPU Candidate belatedly surmised.
"Bingo," Ram answered with a smirk. "And before you ask why, I've already explained it in the last chapter so I'm not going to bore everyone by repeating myself."
Rom decided to speak up with her own question before Uni went on another pointless tirade.
"Hold up. Are you saying that Nepgear isn't actually dead?"
"Eh, that's up for debate," Ram answered cryptically. "The whole concept of life and death starts to get real murky when talking about higher beings like her. If it makes you feel any better though, I don't sense her in this plane of existence for the time being."
"Then how did-"
Ram waved her off (much to Rom's chagrin) as she instead looked over at God Eater and the reformed thug as they hauled up their restrained prisoner.
"Anywho, looks like you've got this side objective more or less taken care of." Her gaze suddenly drifted over towards Brave as a smirk appeared on her face. "Guess that leaves me to deal with the last major problem here."
The light-hearted mood immediately evaporated as Uni moved to place herself in front of Brave while pulling out her trademark assault rifle.
"Touch him and you die," she threatened, aiming her gun directly at Ram's head.
Everyone froze into a dead standstill as the tension in the area peaked. Rom, God Eater, and the reformed thug all tensed as they looked between the pair cautiously. Brave, of course, was completely unreadable as always thanks to his robotic nature but his raised sword did well to highlight his own wariness.
Just when it seemed another fight would break out, Ram's figure blurred out again. As her form solidified, everyone was shocked to find her holding Uni's assault rifle in her own hands.
Before the Lastation CPU Candidate could react violently to the theft of her weapon however, Ram surprised them all by casually throwing the weapon back to her.
"You really need to think before you act Cinnamai," Ram said, watching with a patient half-smile as Uni caught her gun with a confused look. "Do you really think I would've bothered challenging Flan if I wanted to go the genocide route myself?"
Uni at least had the decency to look a bit abashed as she lowered her reclaimed weapon.
"That's... I... Cinnamai?" she eventually asked, obviously trying to deflect some of her embarrassment.
Ram still opted to answer with a shrug.
"It's the nickname I have for another gun-totting cinnamon roll that I know. I figured it'd fit you as well seeing as how the both of you ended up turning into full-blown edgelords."
"Wha- Who are you calling an edgelord?!"
Ram laughed as the tense atmosphere faded completely. Apparently deciding the matter was dealt with, she returned her focus onto Brave with an intrigued look.
"Anyways, it looks like all traces of the Deity of Sin's power is being contained in a sealed-off portion of your central processor. I have to say, I've never seen a development like this before."
"Oh, that's because Affimojas and K-Sha created a special firewall to-"
God-Eater's explanation was cut short as the reformed thug clamped a hand over her mouth to keep her from spilling any more of their secrets. Not that she hadn't revealed plenty already as Rom silently processed the fact that Uni had apparently recruited several more key figures of an event that had yet to occur. Ram, on the other hand, seemed more interested in the part regarding the firewall.
"Huh. Didn't know you could do that. Then again I hardly know much about robots other than how to dismantle them."
Her grin widened as Uni twitched at that.
"Relax Cinnamai. I think I already made it clear that I'm not going to hurt your boyfriend."
Uni immediately turned beet-red as she began to stutter incomprehensibly. Apparently deciding to come to her rescue for once, Brave finally spoke up.
"We do not share such a relationship," he stated firmly.
This only seemed to amuse Ram further as she gave a slight shrug. "If you say so. But I think you two would make a pretty good couple. Although I do recommend that you help Cinnamai get over her overprotective tendencies if you do ever decide to get together. Trust me, that sort of thing can really put a damper on your relationship."
Rom could not tell if Ram was simply messing around with them or being serious. Uni, for her part, seemed to take this as the former as she shook in embarrassed fury. Brave too seemed to regard Ram's words in a similar light but expressed it in a far less flustered manner.
"Enough with this nonsense. Speak your true intentions, CPU Candidate of Lowee," he proclaimed.
Ram gave a soft laugh. "Heh. Been a while since I was referred to by that title. It really does bring me back." She shook away the nostalgic look that crossed her face as she took on a slightly more serious demeanor. "Fine, I'll get to the point. I want to remove that fragment of the Deity of Sin from you. Normally, it'd be a rather risky operation seeing as how you're entire being is technically a part of her. But seeing as how your friends managed to successfully separate your current consciousness from her influence, I should be able to do it without too much complications."
Uni finally seemed to get over Ram's earlier teasing as she spoke up in a huff.
"I don't see the need for all this. The firewall's keeping Brave's mind from being manipulated while my engineers made sure to replace most of his important hardware components to safeguard his body as well."
"I think you're misunderstanding," Ram clarified. "I'm not worried that he'll end up being controlled by the Deity of Sin. You've already done a good job of preventing that rather cliché plot thread on your own. No, I want to remove that big chunk of evil from him so he doesn't end up being targeted again."
"By who?" Uni challenged. "You said yourself that Nepgear was more or less dead. Plus, she agreed to leave Brave alone if you won your crazy game anyways."
Ram shook her head. "Believe me, there are plenty of other beings out there that have a score to settle with the Deity of Sin. And not all of them are quite so reasonable as Flan."
Rom was pretty sure she was not the only one to raise an incredulous eyebrow at that. Reasonable was about the last word she'd use to describe that psychotic Nepgear. Saying there was anyone worse than that lunatic was like stating that there was someone who loved pudding more than Neptune.
"Look," Ram sighed, noticing her audience's stark disbelief, "it's your choice whether to let me remove the Deity of Sin's essence from Brave or not. If you refuse though, just know that I might not be around the next time a crazy CPU shows up and tries to hunt down our resident embodiment of evil and anyone connected to her."
Rom felt the smart choice here was pretty damn obvious. Uni and Brave, however, remained oddly pensive as they shared a meaningful glance with each other. Seeing this, Rom could not help but feel there was something more to this than the pair was letting on.
"Very well," Brave suddenly said, interrupting Rom's suspicious musings. "If this will prevent another encounter such as today's, then I shall accept."
"Brave..." Uni began.
The robot knight shook his head as he put away his sword. "It is my choice Uni. I believe this decision is the best for us all."
Yup, Rom thought, there was definitely a bigger story here in regards to Brave's connection with the Deity of Sin.
Whatever the case was, she did not get any further hints about it as Uni let out a sigh and reluctantly stepped aside.
"You better not hurt him," she warned, pinning Ram with a fierce glare.
"Hey, trust me. I'm a doctor." The skeptical look Ram got caused her to amend her statement with a laugh. "Alright, fine. My sister's the actual doctor. But I've been around her long enough that I can probably count as one too."
Her less-than-reassuring comment was made only worse when she suddenly pulled out a glowing sword with a purple, wing-shaped hilt.
"Now hold still," she told Brave. "This might sting a bit."
That was all the warning anyone got before Ram suddenly rushed forward with her sword. Eyes widened in shock and fear as Ram jumped into the air and dramatically thrust her sword forward...
only to gently prick Brave's lion-shaped chest-plate with the blade's tip.
"Poke."
A blinding burst of white light immediately engulfed the robot knight. Contrary to Rom's expectations, Brave did not let out a pained scream or really any other sounds of robotic malfunction. In fact, the light around him faded a mere second later as a rather anti-climactic silence fell across the area.
"Mission complete," Ram declared, landing back onto the ground with a pleased grin. "Heh heh. Gotta say, having all of the Deity of Sin's essence contained in a singular location really made this a whole lot easier than normal."
It took a moment longer for Uni to find her voice again.
"What just-? How-?"
Ram waved her sword in a playful manner. "This thing's called the Blade of Evil's Bane for a reason you know. It'd probably have a hard time dispelling something as concentrated as the Deity of Sin's main body but for a minor case like this, it definitely does the trick."
She casually put away her iconic sword before giving a light stretch.
"Whew. Now then, I've got a lot to do elsewhere so I'll be heading out. You kids remember to play nice with each other from now on and-"
She suddenly paused as she seemed to remember something.
"Oh right. I should probably reward you two for helping me in the duel against Flan. Hmm... how about this? I'll save you a couple hours of tedious gameplay time and tell you something that you're probably already suspecting but won't fully confirm until much later."
Her mischievous smile returned as she glanced between Uni and Rom's confused expressions.
"The four of us, including Flan, are all from branching timelines that deviated from this point in time. Or more specifically, the Deity of Sin story arc."
Ram gave a laugh at the open-mouthed look of shock the other two CPU Candidates gave her.
"And with that little revelation, I'm off." She gave a final taunting wave at the dumbstruck pair as a pink aura surrounded her. "Later!"
Rom managed to come back to her senses at the last possible second. In a feat that would've impressed even the most veteran mages, she rushed out a magical tethering spell on Ram a mere microsecond before her twin teleported away.
"You're not getting away from me again that easily!" Rom angrily declared.
The next instant, she too vanished from view as her spell dragged her towards wherever Ram had gone.
Uni, Brave, God Eater, and 643 all continued to stare at the site where the two Lowee sisters had disappeared from. After several minutes of this lengthy and awkward pause, Brave finally looked over to address Uni.
"It seems we have a lot to discuss. However, before all that, there is something I must say." To Uni's surprise, he suddenly knelt before her with his head lowered as if in shame. "I've been nothing but a burden to you this entire encounter. Please accept my apologies."
"Yeah, same here," God Eater echoed despondently. "We really were useless during all those fights."
643 also nodded his head dismally as he dragged over the hand-cuffed body of the ASIC extremist leader.
Uni quickly shook her head in response. "Don't put yourselves down like that. The fact that all of you are still alive means more to me than anything else. And besides, it's not like I was able to do much either against those... monsters."
She pushed down the surge of anger and frustration she felt as she turned to face Brave.
"How're you holding up? Did that brat mess up any of your systems?"
Brave slowly got back to his feet before answering.
"I'm fine Uni. I ran a full self scan earlier and found everything to be working perfectly. As for the Deity of Sin's essence, it's hard to confirm for sure due to it being isolated from the rest of my systems. However, there is an unaccounted for decrease in my overall energy levels which indicates that it truly has been removed."
Uni nodded as a thoughtful silence fell amongst the group.
"So what are we going to do now?" 643 eventually asked. "Didn't we need that sample of the Deity of Sin's power for our plans?"
"There are other contingencies we have available," Brave said. "It is rather unfortunate though seeing as how I still think that plan would've been the most effective way of achieving our goal."
"Then why did you let the brat remove it?" Uni asked. Inwardly though, she had a feeling she already knew the answer.
"You were reluctant about utilizing this plan in the first place due to the risk it entailed for me," Brave responded, confirming Uni's suspicions. "After everything that had happened, it seemed the least I could do was alleviate at least one worry from your mind."
Uni looked away as a slight blush colored her cheeks. Brave was as stubborn as they came when he had a goal in mind. As such, the fact that he would deviate from the most efficient path to his objective just for her sake showed how much he cared about her.
I think you two would make a pretty good couple...
Uni violently shook her head to get rid of the brat's words. Now was not the time for her to be indulging in such fantasies. She still had her goals to accomplish, her promises to her lost friends. With everything that had occurred recently, it was more important than ever for her to keep her head in the game. She would achieve her true purpose this time around and absolutely nothing was going to stop her or her allies.
...
But... perhaps once this was all over... she and Brave could...
Uni surprised everyone by suddenly giving herself a rather vicious wake-up slap.
"Prepare to move out," she ordered, ignoring both the stinging of her cheek as well as the concerned looks she got. "We'll regroup with our forces in town and call in a shuttle back to the capital. God Eater, send word to the rest of the council. We'll need to quickly decide the best way to handle these new... developments."
God Eater immediately snapped to attention before activating both her earpiece and flight processors. The others activated their processors as well, with Brave taking a second longer to collect their still-unconscious prisoner from 643 before activating the thrusters built into his wings and legs. As the group rose up into the skies and took off, Uni sneaked a backwards glance at her robot partner.
"Brave, I... um... well, thanks. Doing all that for me... for continuing to support me... I really appreciate it."
"There is no need to thank me Uni," Brave responded. "We have agreed to walk this perilous path together. No matter what trials we may face, I shall always be by your side."
And despite all the setbacks she had faced that day, Uni could not help but give a small smile.